Over the past few months, I’ve been obsessed with the TV series Forged in Fire in which bladesmiths compete on the series to win $10,000 and earn the title of Forged in Fire champion. So when I found out there was a local bladesmith I decided to get in touch with him to find out his story.
Fahad Alsayer goes by the handle @theblademaker on instagram and has been making knives for just over a year. He started making knives for fun before realizing there were people who would be interested in buying his creations. He actually hadn’t thought of selling them until one day while low on cash, he got a phone bill message on his phone. He hadn’t started working at that time and was trying to figure out how to pay his bill when he decided he’d try and sell one of his knives. After managing to sell it, he paid his phone bill and reinvested the remaining amount back into his hobby. Eventually, it became a source of income with local chefs and knife collectors getting in touch with him for one-off creations. He’s even shipped his knives to customers abroad.
I passed by Fahad’s workshop last week, a room in his family home which he converted into his workspace. It’s a pretty cool setup with a knife kiln on one side of the room for heat-treating the metals, and sanders and a sharpening station on the other. Fahad doesn’t forge his metals but instead purchases them in sheets online which he then either shapes manually with a sander, or cuts out using a laser cutter. Due to the cost of the materials as well as the time and skill it takes to create a knife, Fahad’s knives cost KD90 and up, depending on the size of the knife, amount of work it took and kind of metal used. Some of his customers include @chefkb and @foodninja whom he created custom knives for. Fahad isn’t the only knifemaker in Kuwait, according to him there are others albeit a small group but they tend to meet once a week to talk knives and help each other out.
If you’re interested in purchasing a knife or checking out Fahad’s work then make sure you check out his instagram @theblademaker
8 replies on “The Blade Maker”
Good on him! Nice to see non food businesses
I love the show Forged in Fire! That is awesome to find out about knife makers in Kuwait! These types of articles are my favorite on your blog – the ones that point out something completely new and different!
These articles are my favorite as well but sadly it’s not easy to find out about these things or the people 😔
I love it .. more crafts please.
Does he make custom pocket knifes? I collect pocket knifes.
That’s a good suggestion actually, the business would soar if he made pocket knives
My wife is obsessed with knives – but not the cooking kind. Weapon knives.
I shall contact this guy – would be an awesome present for her.
I’m a knife designer (Damned designs) and am catching up with him soon to discuss some ideas all thanks to this posts